12 Palestinian Civilians Wounded in Israeli Air Strikes on Rafah, 3 Women Injured During a Gaza Protest

Three Gazan women wounded by Israeli gunfire during anti-fence march

[ 20/03/2010 - 03:16 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

Three Palestinian women have sustained on Saturday moderate and medium injuries by Israeli gunfire during their participation in a peaceful march against the Israeli security fence near Kissufim military post, central Gaza Strip.

Dr. Muawiya Hassanein, the director of ambulance and emergency department in the health ministry, told the Palestinian information center (PIC) that the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) opened fire at and shelled dozens of civilians, most of them were children and women, in the area.

Eyewitnesses said the protesters chanted slogans against the Israeli occupation and in solidarity with Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Islamic holy sites, and carried banners condemning the Israeli war crimes.

On Friday, 15 Palestinians were moderately and seriously wounded after an Israeli aerial attack on disused and wrecked Gaza airport, east of Rafah city. Meanwhile, Palestinian medical sources affirmed that there were more casualties in the bombed area.

For his part, Dr. Mu'awiya Hassanain told the PIC that all the victims were a group of impoverished workmen who were bombed as they were collecting rubble and building materials from the airport in order to use them in construction or to earn their living.

12 wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza

Published today (updated) 20/03/2010 13:52

A Palestinian man examines a metal workshop bombed by Israeli warplanes
on Friday, 19 March 2010. [MaanImages/Wissam Nassar]

Gaza - Ma'an -

At least 12 Palestinians were wounded as Israeli warplanes struck the southern Gaza Strip on Friday night.

Locals said US-made Israeli F16 warplanes launched three attacks near the ruins of the Yasser Arafat International Airport.

Medics said 12 wounded persons were transported to Abu Yousuf Al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah. Three were moderately injured while the rest were lightly hurt, they added.

Israeli warplanes were still flying over the Gaza Strip at press time.

The bombing was the second aerial attack in less than 24 hours. Early on Friday morning, Israel’s air force bombed six targets across the strip, including open areas near Khan Younis, a tunnel along the Gaza-Egypt border, and a factory. No one was reported injured. Palestinian military groups also said they clashed with Israeli forces east of Gaza City on Thursday evening.

Those clashes came after a homemade projectile fired from Gaza killed a Thai agricultural worker in an Israeli area near the city of Ashkelon. It was the first fatality from a Gaza projectile since the end of Israel’s three-week assault on Gaza in 2008 and 2009 that killed some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack, stressing that all acts of violence are "totally unacceptable."

The attack was claimed by two groups: the Al-Aqsa Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah, and Jund Ansar As-Sunna, a little-known hardline Islamist organization. Both groups are at odds with Gaza's Hamas-run government, which has successfully enforced a ceasefire with Israel since the end of the war in 2009.

12 Injured In Israeli Airstrikes In Gaza
Saturday March 20, 2010 09:24 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

Palestinian medical sources in reported Saturday at dawn that 12 Palestinians were wounded when the Israeli occupation air forces bombarded a number of tunnels, and the Gaza International Airport east of Rafah, in southern Gaza.

The sources added that the wounded residents were moved to the Abu Yousuf Al-Najjar in Rafah. Three of the wounded suffered moderate wounds.

The army also targeted several areas including two siege-busting tunnels in Rafah, a site believed to be a weapons-manufacturing workshop and the airport in Rafah.

An Israeli occupation army spokesperson reported that the bombardment came in retaliation to five homemade shells fired by the resistance against adjacent Israeli settlements over the last two days.

The spokesperson added that one shells was fired at the Western Negev on Friday.
A Thai worker was killed by a shell while working at a Kibbutz in the Western Negev.

Palestinian resistance groups recently resumed the firing of homemade shells after Israel declared more plans to build settlements in the Old City of Jerusalem and around it, and after attacking worshipers at the Al-Aqsa mosque.

The Palestinian Ministry of Detainees reported that Israel kidnapped more than 250 Palestinians during the recent clashes in Jerusalem. At least 30 of the kidnapped residents are children, mainly around the age of 14.

Several local reporters were also kidnapped by the army and the Israeli police.

Most of the clashes were focused in Al-Esawiya, Wad Al Joz and Al-Suwwana neighborhood in East Jerusalem. The army released some of the detained residents after imposing high fines on them. Dozens of residents were wounded.

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